Lee Ufan Retrospective at Hamburger Bahnhof by Christophe C

Image credit: Lee Ufan, Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, 27 October 2023 – 28 April 2024 © Lee Ufan / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023. Photo: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie / Jacopo La Forgia


Hamburger Bahnhof presents the first comprehensive retrospective of the painter and sculptor Lee Ufan in Germany. Lee is one of the most important representatives of the Mono-ha school in Japan and the Dansaekhwa movement in Korea, which developed in parallel to other minimal art movements. The exhibition shows about 50 works from the past five decades. Lee’s decades-long engagement with painting is addressed by an extraordinary highlight: Rembrandt’s famous Self-Portrait with Velvet Beret (1634) from the Berlin Gemäldegalerie is shown for the first time at Hamburger Bahnhof and enters into a dialogue with Lee’s expansive installation “Relatum – The Mirror Road” (2016/2023). In this way, Lee’s art introduces visitors to the formative art movements of Japan and Korea in the 1970s and provides a new perspective on an icon of Western European art.

https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/hamburger-bahnhof/exhibitions/detail/lee-ufan/

The exhibition is on view from October 27, 2023 to April 28, 2024.

Special Exhibition: Lee Ufan at Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art by Christophe C

This is a major retrospective exhibition dedicated to Lee Ufan (1936– ), a leading artist of one of the most important art trends in postwar Japan, Mono-ha (lit. “School of Things”). It covers his early works from the late 1960s to his latest works showcasing a whole new scope of art. As Lee has mainly exhibited overseas since the beginning of the 2000s, this will be his long-awaited full-scale solo exhibition in Japan since 2005.

https://www.artm.pref.hyogo.jp/eng/exhibition/

The exhibition is viewable from December 13, 2022 to February 12, 2023.

Lee Ufan: 15th Anniversary of the National Art Center, Tokyo by Christophe C

Exhibition view: Lee Ufan: 15th Anniversary of the National Art Center, Tokyo, The National Art Center, Tokyo (10 August–7 November 2022). Courtesy National Art Center, Tokyo.

From the National Art Center, Tokyo Press Release:

It is with great pleasure that we present a major retrospective by Lee Ufan (born in 1936), a contemporary artist who has received a great deal of attention internationally as a prominent member of the Japan-based Mono-ha group at the National Art Center, Tokyo commemorating its 15th Anniversary. […]

The exhibition assembles Lee's most important works, including everything from his earliest pre-Mono-ha pieces, which considered the problem of vision, the Relatum series, which changed the concept of sculpture, and his highly spiritual paintings, which produce a tranquil rhythm. In addition to showcasing Lee's past works, enabling us to trace the trajectory of his creation practice, the exhibition is also scheduled to include his latest ground-breaking efforts.

https://www.nact.jp/english/exhibitions/2022/leeufan/

The exhibition is viewable from August 10, 2022 to November 7, 2022.

News / Invitation by Christophe C

Lee Ufan aux Alyscamps, 2021 Copyright StudioLeeUfan / Photo by Claire Dorn

Lee Ufan aux Alyscamps, 2021
Copyright StudioLeeUfan / Photo by Claire Dorn

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to announce that from April 2022, Lee Ufan Arles, a permanent exhibition center for Lee Ufan's paintings and sculptures, will be accessible to the public in the Hotel Vernon in the heart of the city of Arles.

This private mansion, built between the 16th and 18th centuries, was acquired by the Lee Ufan Foundation to become the venue for a presentation of the artist's work in the same way as those already open in Naoshima (Japan) and in Busan (South Korea).

We hope to welcome you to Lee Ufan Arles next spring.

On this occasion, we will also be happy to meet you in the Lee Ufan « Requiem » exhibition which brings together under the curatorship of Alfred Pacquement an important set of 14 new works installed in the ancient necropolis of Alyscamps, one of the main heritage sites of the city of Arles.

Lee Ufan has respectfully invested these ancestral places by displaying his sculptures and paintings in the famous alley of sarcophagi that dot this city of the dead and in the Saint-Honorat church, an unfinished Romanesque building that concludes the tour.

Lee Ufan « Requiem » is viewable from October 30, 2021 to September 30, 2022.

Hoping to see you soon.

StudioLeeUfan

STARS: Six Contemporary Artists from Japan to the World, Mori Art Museum, Jul 31, 2020 to Jan 3, 2021 by Christophe C

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STARS ARE NOT MADE OVERNIGHT!

YAYOI KUSAMA, LEE UFAN, TATSUO MIYAJIMA, TAKASHI MURAKAMI, YOSHITOMO NARA, HIROSHI SUGIMOTO

The Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, is proud to present STARS: Six Contemporary Artists from Japan to the World from Friday, July 31, 2020, to Sunday, January 3, 2021.

The decades of postwar economic growth were punctuated in Japan by a series of national events including the Olympics and World Expo, as the country began to turn its gaze outward once more. In the contemporary art world, the period was characterized by debates on decolonization and multiculturalism, and the proliferation of new contemporary art settings, such as biennials and art fairs.

For this exhibition, we have chosen six artists whose careers propelled them beyond the confines of Japan during this period, earning them high acclaim today around the world, and across generations, and will trace the journey of these artists from their earliest to the latest works. STARS explores how the practice of each artist has been evaluated in the global context, and touch upon these artists’ pursuit of universal issues transcending nationality and culture; traditions and aesthetics; technology and subculture, while keeping in mind aspects of social, cultural and economic background unique and particular to Japan.

https://www.mori.art.museum/en/exhibitions/stars/index.html